Adwatch (Mar 14) top 20 recall: Britvic

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When I watch this Britvic ad, I can't quite work out whether it is intended to persuade me to buy more soft drinks or convince me that it has a social mission.

The link between 'packs and places' is clear from the execution, and I'm sure most marketers would say you can do both. Can you really though? Should you?

It ultimately depends on one key question we should always ask of our work: where is the impact? In this case, is it on sales? Or is it on kids' futures? Also of concern is the language around the promotion.

'Buy a participating pack,' it says. Are packs participating in this, or am I?

The ad promotes Britvic's 'transform your patch' idea. Britvic (via 'granny', or Brenda to her mates) is asking people to get behind four different areas of community involvement: playgrounds, picnic areas, football pitches and skate parks.

Four celebs have been recruited to fight for each of the causes: ex-footballer Robbie Savage, Fazer from N-Dubz and TV presenters Denise van Outen and Emma Willis. They appear in all the digital work, so why they weren't used in the TV ad? More confusion.

There's nothing wrong with all this really. All the boxes are ticked: real people, celeb support, campaigning tone, voting mechanic, social-media platforms and participation - it's just that it's all so forgettable.

Here was a chance to do something amazing across a host of well-known brands. Why not create a breakthrough social initiative?

The key here is understanding the audience. I get that it's mums who buy the soft drinks, but it's kids who play in the parks. These kids are post-millennials, so they have different expectations from Generation X, Generation Y or any generation that came before.

Britvic's pseudo-campaigning approach doesn't hit the right tone for this generation. Millennials look to brands for self-expression not just of wealth, but also of values, and my guess is they won't be able to work out what Britvic's are.

Transparency is a key emerging value, but the kids' voices here are drowned out by celebs. Usefulness is another, but where are the digital tools that could connect the imagery of the parks with the technology that kids have at their fingertips?

Mobile is the emerging tool that makes it all happen and the one thing you rarely see a millennial without.

'Open, useful, mobile, millennials' clearly wasn't the client brief, but it should have been. To go back to the original question: where is the impact of this activity?

I would argue it could have been more ambitious about improving relationships with the next generation of customers rather than creating some additional promotional sales from the present one.

Brand strategy verdict

The ad probably works in-store and meets the promotional brief. It is forgettable, however; once it's off air, will anyone feel differently about Britvic? The educationally focused Million project, in the US, is a better example of how to do 'social profit'.

5 out of 10

Adwatch (Mar 14): Top 20 recall TV ads
Latest	Mar-07	Brand	Agency/TV Buyer	Recall
rank				%
1	(–)	Virgin Media	DDB UK/Fifty6	79
2	(–)	Vodafone	RKCR Y&R/ OMD UK	51
3	(–)	Walkers	Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO/OMD UK	50
4=	-7	Aldi	McCann Erickson Manchester/ Universal McCann Manchester	49
4=	(–)	Oreo	Draftfcb/PHD	49
6	(–)	DFS	Uber/MediaCom	45
7	(–)	Lloyds TSB	RKCR Y&R/MEC	42
8	(–)	Marks & Spencer	RKCR Y&R/Walker Media	40
9	(–)	Cravendale	Wieden & Kennedy London/Carat	39
10	(–)	Nestle Kit Kat Chunky	JWT London/Mindshare	38
11=	(–)	ING Direct	BMB/PHD	35
11=	(–)	Britvic	Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO/Mindshare	35
13	(–)	Ribena	M&C Saatchi/MediaCom	33
14=	(–)	Dreams	RKCR Y&R/Starcom	32
14=	(–)	Febreze	Grey Düsseldorf/ Starcom	32
16	-12	NatWest	M&C Saatchi/ ZenithOptimedia	31
17=	(14=)	Cadbury Creme Egg	Fallon London/PHD	30
17=	(–)	Haribo	Quiet Storm/ Walker Media	30
19	(–)	The Sun	WCRS/Mindshare	29
20	(–)	Dr Oetker	BBDO Germany/ MEC Manchester	28

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk